June, 2022
Another Home Exchange trip...this time to Krakow, Poland for 11 days! But, but.....isn't this blog called 'Magical Mallorca'? Yeahhhhh, but I travel a lot, too, soooooo....ohhhhh .....never mind.
Would you believe there are direct, non-stop flights between Mallorca (THERE...see!!! I mentioned Mallorca!) and Krakow? Who'd thunk?
I flew Buzz Air (odd name and it has an image of a Bee on the wings!), a subsidiary of RyanAir, a very popular low-cost airline here in Europe.
I was scheduled to depart at 8:40pm and arrive at 11:30pm which isn't my favorite thing to do...arrive in an unfamiliar city late at night and find my way to my also unfamiliar housing. My flight was delayed 2 hours, therefore I arrived in Krakow at 1:30 in the morning!
The flight was uneventful but I ended up discovering I was flying a Boeing 737 MAX!!! You know, the one that was grounded for a year and a half? Boeing doesn't refer to it as a 'Max' anymore...it's an '8200'. Gee, wonder why.
I knew something was different because I was seated in an exit row but the config was 3 seats (where I sat) and 2 seats in the row in front of me. Where the 3rd seat would be was where I could fully extend my legs. GREAT! Oddly, though, there was a flight attendant jumpseat facing me. Huh? Instead of 2 exits in front, 4 in the middle, and 2 in the rear, this plane had 2 in front, 4 over the wings, 2 where I was sitting, and 2 more in the rear...for a total of 10 versus the standard 8.
Thankfully, Krakow (KRK) airport isn't all that big. We disembarked from both the front and rear doors via stair trucks, walked across the tarmac, and into the terminal. Then, maybe another 150 feet and I had already passed thru the gate and baggage claim area and was out the other side where taxis were waiting. Just before that, though, I stopped at an ATM to get Polish currency because they don't use the Euro...they use PLN which is called Zlotsky. I have no clue how you get PLN out of the word Zlotsky!
I didn't want to deal with mass transit that late at night, so I grabbed a nice black Mercedes taxi. When operating airport runs, they simply calculate the distance to your destination and refer to a radius map to see which radius/price range you fall in. In my case, he told me it would be 89 PLN. Using my handy-dandy calculator app, that translated to about 19.26 Euros. I gave him a 100 PLN bill (about 21.64 Euros) so, yes Brian, I tipped him!!!
My Home Exchange apartment was located about 2.5 kms from the Old Town, in a modern apartment development. My host left her key with the security guard who didn't speak a lick of English but after a few stumbling minutes, I got my key.
I hit the sack a little past 2am. For some unknown reason, I was bolting out of bed about every 20 minutes with leg cramps. 2 1//2 hours later, the sun was shining in my bedroom. WHUHHHHH??? For cripes sake, sunrise is at 4:30am here!!!! Sunset around 8:30pm.
My first day in Krakow was a beautiful, warm sunny day. Due to a lack of sleep, I decided to stay in the entire day, except for walking to two grocery stores to stock up on food
The next day, it rained. I stayed in again. What the heck, I was here for 11 days.
The following day was lovely. Normally, I pre-purchase a City Card which provides free (or discounted) access to many of the most common tourist sites PLUS unlimited use of the transit system. They usually work out very well and save a lot of time not having to stand in lines and/or constantly buying tickets. I opted out this time because I noticed most of Krakows' draw were within the relatively small perimeter of Old Town.
Krakow is one of the cities that have Bolt, Tier, and Lime electric scooters (like skateboards but with a handlebar) you can rent on the spot wherever they happened to be parked. There was always a few scooters around the apartment complex. I rented one and off I went tootling to Old Town.
There were a TON of people in Old Town and they all seemed to be walking in the same direction as myself. They were headed to the main square. I asked a police officer what was going on as I noticed lines forming along the sidewalks. He said it was an 'annual dragon parade' about to start in a few minutes. I waited about 15 minutes but my legs were hurting from standing so I saundered off. Later, as I saw it pass by (what little I COULD see) it was mainly home-made dragons with people inside carrying it, snaking down the street. It was a KIDS parade! No wonder why there were a zillion baby buggies in my way!!! GRRRRRR!!!!!
I tried to get into a few of the churches lining the square but, being a Sunday, they were in the middle of Mass and not conducive to wandering around snapping photos. So, I nabbed a sidewalk table at Hard Rock and enjoyed people watching.
In this video, you'll see some wonderful places I got to see on my first day out in Krakow including a gorgeous Basilica, horsies, music, and structures hundreds of years old.
When I was pooped out, I nabbed another electric scooter and scooted back to the apartment. There, I found out my tour to Auschwitz the next morning would not be picking me up at 9am...it would be 7am. ARRGHHH!!!!
Enjoy the video!!! (a mere 11 mins)....
Or, click here: https://youtu.be/SAKCpy-mJIQ
By the way, if you're interested in viewing any of my past entries about travelling around Europe and where I live in Mallorca, simply scroll down past my signature to the end. There, you'll see 'Blog History'. You can click on any Month/Year to see the titles I published at that time. Simply click on the title you're interested in and it will take you to that page.
